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Establishing Effective Partnerships:
Potential and Limitations of MNO CDR Data
GSMA Disaster Response Workshop
Legazpi, Philippines June 19, 2013
Erik Wetter, PhD
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Haiti case: Anonymized CDR data to analyze movement at the cell
(tower) level
• Anonymous CDR data:
anonymization in operator’s system
• Data points – once per day
• Resolution: cell tower
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Predictability of Population Movements
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Business case
Donating CDR Data: Value proposition for operators
• Privacy/location tracking significant PR challenge for most telcos
• Goodwill vs government – telcos become providers of most critical
information
• Goodwill vs subscribers – helping customers in time of need
• Preempting regulation
• Revenue preservation (saving subscriber lives)
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Research Areas: Epidemiology/Disease Control
• Current themes
• Cholera
• Malaria
• Influenza
• Collaborations
• European Center for Disease Control
• Chinese Center for Disease Control
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Main Takeaways: CDR Data is Great – But Not A Silver Bullet
• Baseline/seasonal understanding needed
• snapshots are not enough
• Representativeness
• how well the SIMs match the population
• Validity
• real value when combined with other data sources
• Presentation
• has to feed into UN/relief agency format(s)